A formidable researcher, Sean M. Maloney puts his skills to good use in his latest book. By sifting through mountains of declassified documents and open sources, his Emergency War Plan pieces together U.S. plans in the event of war with the USSR from Truman through Eisenhower. He finds that military planning developed under pressure of rapidly changing technology and shifting political calculations.a
Unlike his previous book, the otherwise fascinating survey of atomic war films, Deconstructing Dr. Strangelove, Maloney doesn’t wander into dubious interpretations of U.S. politics (he depicted the hawkish Kennedy administration as a nest of peaceniks). Here, the Royal Military College of Canada history professor largely sticks to the facts—reams of them—including surprising revelations of Anglo-American penetration of Soviet airspace during Stalin’s time. His conclusion is accurate: American nuclear deterrence helped break Soviet expansion—and yes, he’s right, too many on the left continued to apologize for the Soviet Union long after apologies were no longer acceptable.
